


believe in heroes

by Kaylin881



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Banter, Fluff and Crack, Gen, Mentioned violence, Team Bonding, Team Dynamics, except Rocket and Red Arrow aren't there, set at some indeterminate time between season 1 and 2
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-09
Updated: 2019-01-09
Packaged: 2019-10-07 08:40:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17362697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaylin881/pseuds/Kaylin881
Summary: The Marvel movies exist in the Young Justice universe. Wally convinces—fine, bullies—the rest of the team into watching them so they'll understand his pop culture references.





	believe in heroes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TimepoofMothlight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TimepoofMothlight/gifts).



> This was intended to be a Christmas present for my friend timepoof. It's a little late, but better late than never?

It started, as so many of these things did, with Wally. After a mission in which Superboy’s strength had been particularly useful, Wally was hanging off Conner’s arm and talking him up to anyone in earshot—which, at the moment, meant Zatanna, since the rest of the team had split up to carry out their various post-mission routines.

“...it was like he was the Hulk or something, man!”

Conner’s eyebrows did the little scrunchy thing that meant he wasn’t sure whether someone was making a joke at his expense. “What’s a Hulk?” he asked the next time he could get a word in edgeways.

Wally did a double-take, nearly losing his balance and falling to the floor. “Wha—you don’t know what the Hulk is? What am I saying, of course you don’t, you don’t know any of the fun stuff. Don’t worry, big guy, we’ll show you what you’re missing.” He patted Conner on the shoulder with the arm he still had slung around the taller boy’s neck.

A second later, he’d untangled himself and zipped off to round up the others.

“C’mon, emergency team meeting!”

The rest of the team stumbled into the common room one by one, Wally hurrying them along like an overexcited sheepdog.

“Alright,” Kaldur said. “Where is the emergency?”

Wally took a deep breath, looking like the information was physically hurting him. “Conner doesn’t know who the Hulk is!” he burst out.

“What?” Artemis looked disappointed as she relaxed down from pre-mission alertness to a more casual stance. “That’s your emergency? No supervillain attacks, no alien invasion?” Crossing her arms, she glared at Wally. “Seriously, Baby Flash, you dragged us all out here for _this_?”

“But...but Artemis!” He grabbed her by the shoulders, looked deep into her eyes, and whispered, “ _He doesn’t know about Marvel_.”

She shrugged him off. “Big deal, so he hasn’t seen _The Avengers_. I still don’t see how that’s an emergency.”

“I have to admit,” Kaldur put in, “I myself am unfamiliar with these terms.”

“Me too,” M’gann added.

Wally shook his head, tutting in disappointment. “Right,” he declared, mock-serious. “This calls for desperate measures.”

He grinned, and it seemed to transform his whole body. “Movie night!”

No-one was quite sure how it happened, but a short time later the team found themselves arranged in front of the TV in the rec room as the Marvel logo formed on the screen.

Most of them still looked confused and irritated, but Robin seemed not only to have accepted his fate but to actually be enjoying himself. “What? They’re good movies,” was his excuse when Artemis looked at him.

She shrugged and stole a handful of Wally’s popcorn, ignoring his cries of outrage. Zatanna took advantage of his distraction to sneak a few more out of the bowl with magic, whispering backwards words under her breath.

In front of them, a convoy of armoured vehicles rolled across a desert landscape.

“Kinda reminds me of Bialya,” Conner said.

Wally shushed him. “Just watch the movie!”

Artemis was next to speak up. “Great. A rich entitled asshole,” she grumbled when Tony Stark appeared onscreen.

“Shhh!”

The commentary died down as it became clear that something was about to go very wrong. Onscreen, the explosions started. All the soldiers snapped into battle mode.

Kaldur found himself leaning forward on the edge of his seat. Taking a deep breath, he relaxed back against the cushions. It was only a movie.

There was dead silence when the bomb went off.

The hush held all the way through the harrowing scenes that followed, only released in a collective sigh of relief when the movie transitioned to a flashback sequence.

Robin started cackling a full minute before the reveal that Tony hadn’t shown up to the ceremony. Wally was muffling giggles as well, despite all his words about not interrupting the movie.  

“I gotta be honest, that does look more fun,” Artemis said when Tony appeared onscreen playing a dice game. She continued to throw half-hearted shade at Tony’s antics in Vegas, but it was clear that her initial opinion of him had been shaken. She got just as angry on his behalf as the rest of the team when the reporter challenged Tony outside his car.

There was a sex scene. Because they were a group of teenagers, this meant half of them snickering while the other half blushed and looked away.

Wally, laughing, attempted to cover Conner’s eyes. “He’s only two! He shouldn’t be seeing this!”

Conner, laughing just as hard, held him at bay with one arm and let him flail ineffectually. M’gann hid halfway behind him, face bright red, but she was coaxed back out again to see Pepper Potts make an entrance.

Robin, notably, stared at Pepper any time she was on screen.

“Someone has a cru-ush!” Wally singsonged. Robin hit him on the arm.

The group got gradually quieter again as the flashback drew closer to catching up with the events of the opening. The stripper pole on the jet still got some laughs.

Wally pretended to look thoughtful. “Hey Robin, think Bats would—?”

“ _No_.” Robin glared at his friend. “And he’d kill me for asking, so shut it.”

Conner frowned at the screen as Tony gave a speech about his dad and ‘the weapon you only have to fire once’. Put together with the presentation at the awards ceremony, it wasn’t hard to tell that Tony spent his life in the shadow of Howard Stark. Conner kind of hated how much he could relate to that.

M’gann, sitting next to Conner, put a hand on his arm. Her telepathic ‘voice’ echoed in his head. _< I like you for you, not for Superman.>_

It was a conversation they’d had several times since they started dating. It helped that, having grown up on a different planet, M’gann hadn’t really been a big Superman fan when she met Conner. She’d gotten to know him on his own terms, without comparing him to anyone else.

Conner smiled at M’gann and squeezed her hand. _< I know. Thanks.>_ He turned back to the movie as the flashback sequence ended and it caught up with the present.


End file.
